Ryan Wood is trying to advance as a pro wrestler by pinning his
opponents in the ring, but he was fortunate to walk away from an auto
accident early Saturday morning when the ring pinned him.

Wood, along with fellow Top Rope Championship Wrestling
members Pete Moss and Rob Stardom, each narrowly escaped serious injury
after the van they were in flipped on the Trans-Canada Highway near
Kenora.

Ryan Wood

The three were driving a rental truck with TRCW's ring in
the back when they were returning from a Friday night No-Holds-Barred
show in Thunder Bay. Wood said he was sleeping in the back of the truck
on the ring when Moss fell asleep at the wheel about 20 minutes outside
of Kenora, causing the truck to roll into the ditch and flip three
times.

When the truck landed, Wood was pinned in a tiny space
beneath the ring's estimated 1,350 kilograms of steel.

"If I wasn't so skinny, I probably wouldn't be having
this conversation with you right now," Wood, 18, said yesterday. "All of
us are lucky."

TREATED AND RELEASED

Moss and Stardom suffered facial cuts. All three were
treated and released from Kenora Hospital, suffering bumps and bruises.
Wood said a doctor told him he had a bulged disc in his spine.

"But I think that's more from wrestling than anything
else," he said with a chuckle.

Wood began working as a pro wrestler two years ago, also
taking part as a referee and ring announcer. A member of Canada's junior
national fastball team that competed in Australia in April, he was
playing in a slo-pitch game at Morse Place Community Club yesterday.

Both Wood and Bobby Jay, the promoter of the local
independent wrestling company, said the long road trips are part of the
business.

Jay noted that famed grappler Adrian Adonis, once
tag-team partners with Jesse Ventura, died in an auto accident in
Newfoundland in 1988.

"They were going from town to town and him and two other
wrestlers died," Jay said. "But I've never heard of it happening with
the actual ring in it."

The wrecked truck and ring remained in a Kenora compound
yesterday. TRCW runs a few shows each week in Winnipeg and Jay is
hopeful he won't have to cancel any upcoming events.